The MexicoBlog of the CIP Americas Program monitors and analyzes international press on Mexico with a focus on the US-backed War on Drugs in Mexico and the struggle in Mexico to strengthen the rule of law, justice and protection of human rights. Relevant political developments in both countries are also covered.

Jan 30, 2012

Mexico Politics: PRD calls for clarification of the money claimed by Veracruz officials

The plot thickens in the story of the 25 million pesos found in the suitcases of two Veracruz government employees at the airport in Mexico State. The employees were first arrested and then released when the Veracruz state government said the cash was to pay bills for three state festivals. In the heat of the presidential campaign--in which the PRI candidate and former Mexico State governor Enrique Peña Nieto is in the lead in the polls--the leftist party, PRD, smells a possible scandal and the blood that would go with it.

Milenio: "The president of the PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution), Jesus Zambrano, charged that the 25 million pesos (about 1.8 million dollars) seized from Veracruz officials was being diverted to the presidential campaign of the PRI. Therefore, he demanded that the legal status and the origin of money be clarified.

The leader of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) discredited the attempt to justify the destination of the money--discovered by the Attorney General´s Office at the airport in Toluca, Mexico State--as being "to pay creditors," and being legally managed public money .

"We have total confidence that it is a diversion of resources from the state government (of Veracruz)" in favor of the PRI's presidential candidate (Enrique Peña Nieto), or "Is it, perhaps, dirty money from drug trafficking?" he expounded.

Zambrano warned that the truth ought not to be left unclear, "let alone the audacity of the government of Veracruz", which is demanding that federal authorities return the money...." Spanish original